May 2007

As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, April 28th:

Last week a number of neighbors of Freedom House, an addiction and mental illness treatment center in northern Chapel Hill, came out to speak against a proposed expansion of the facility.
Most of their concerns centered on safety. One neighbor, Cingai Chen, summed up the rhetoric pretty well by saying, "We are very worried about some day those patients will create a safety concern for our community."

The operative words in that statement are "some day." The reality is that Freedom House has been in our community for more than three decades and there have never been problems. It's a well-run place with tremendous success stories and has never created anything resembling a crime problem. There's no reason to believe expanding the facility would change that.

Free food, workshops, and music this Saturday (May 5) and Sunday (May 6) at the Weaver Community Housing Association's oldest cooperative. Sustainable food harvesting workshops, gender identity discussions, magic trick swap, and more! All documented by The People's Channel! All ages welcome. Please bring a donation for the bands.

The N&O's recent article questioning the green credentials of the local Chamber of Commerce seemed to signal a departure from their past coverage which generally accepted the Chamber's promotion of the "triple bottom line" without too much skepticism.

I especially liked the following quotation from James Carnahan as it reminds us that the Chamber is not a monolithic entity with only one opinion. In a way, every member is speaking for and demonstrating the organization's values, even if they're not a paid spokesperson.

I've heard some folks call them the David Price Six, which has a nice ring to it. But it's also notable that Representative Price has requested to drop the charges against the six protesters who occupied his office in an effort to get him to more vigorously oppose the war.

Six local protesters go on trial this afternoon on trespassing charges in connection with an anti-war demonstration in U.S. Rep. David Price's office in February.

On March 26, the six -- Laura Bickford, Ben Carroll, Alisan Fathalizadeh, Sara Joseph, Dante Strobino, Tamara Tal -- pleaded not guilty to the charges. They had called on Price to oppose all further funding for the war and to seek an immediate withdrawal of American soldiers from Iraq.

Since then, Price has written a letter to District Attorney Jim Woodall asking him to drop the charges against the six, protester Carroll said in a release.

Randee Haven-O'Donnell and I have a guest column in today's Chapel Hill News on Carrboro's efforts to actualize sustainability through locally-based economic development. Our approach is based largely on the thinking of Michael Shuman, author of "The Small-Mart Revolution," who served as a resource during the Board of Aldermen retreat back in January.

To read the column, go here. You can also read and comment on the N&O's OrangeChat.

Let me add to what is in the column that many of the ideas are not new to our area. Some of our most heralded economic success stories -- Weaver Street Market, Carrboro's Revolving Loan Fund, the Farmer's Market, Piedmont Biofuels -- are along the lines of the local living economy model. The recent Culture Shock initiative is also very much along these lines.

Orange County Commissioners on Tuesday night asked their Chatham County counterparts to kick in money for a park planned near the county line.

Moses Carey, chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, said Chapel Hill's Southern Community Park -- designed with soccer fields, basketball courts, picnic shelters and other amenities -- is expected to draw plenty of residents of Chatham County, and Orange would rather not have to keep them out.
- newsobserver.com | Chatham aid sought for Chapel Hill park

We have an early discussion going on about whether Chatham County should kick in some bucks for the new South Chapel Hill park. One poster wants to know if Chatham contributes funds can we get the sales tax dollars we spend in Chapel Hill back. :)

I know, I'm starting to act like a velvet hammer, but, well, there are some college towns that haven't shied away from the idea of preserving really nice tracts of land, in perpetuity.

I'd be interested to hear from all the masses from UNC and the towns who visited Madison last summer. Did you visit the Shoreline Preserve and the U Wis Arboretum? That's nearly 2000 acres of land in Madison.

Check out the mission statement for the preservation of the preserve!

I think it's time we all stop feeling like there's nothing we can do to refocus UNC on offering Carrboro and Chapel Hill a very different and sustainable endowment for the future: the preservation of the Horace Williams Tract, permanently.

An article with, I think, some solid models for preservation, as opposed to "sustainable growth."

Here is the press release that I sent out on behalf of the six local government delegates who participated in the recent meeting with Congressman Price on nuclear safety.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2007

Congressman Price Seeks Review of Fire Enforcement of Nuclear Plants

Local officials applaud David Price, and reveal further delays at all Progress Energy plants

Officials from six local governments in North Carolina thanked Congressman David Price today for seeking an investigation into the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's enforcement of fire safety regulations at nuclear power plants. The officials also revealed new information showing that Shearon Harris plant owner Progress Energy has again fallen years behind in its latest promise to correct longstanding fire safety violations – a prime risk factor for a nuclear meltdown – at Harris and at the company's other four reactors in the Southeast.

The title of this post was Tuesday's Chapel Hill News headline. The News' quote from School Board member Lisa Stuckey speaks volumes:

"I think we're caught in a situation where our district continues to grow, the state continues to implement pay raises which are badly needed by teachers and other employees," said school board member Lisa Stuckey, who is serving on that committee.

"And it would be quite ironic if in meeting the demands of growth and in working to bring staff wages to appropriate levels we would then have to cut staff positions," she added. "And I see that as quite likely this year."

Read the whole story for more details. Or read the fine column recently published by Mark Peters.

There was also a column in Wednesday's paper by schools superintendent Neil Pedersen. I could not find a link to it online.

According to the Chapel Hill eNews, the NC Department of Transportation and the Town of Chapel Hill will share the cost of "rehabilitation and expansion of the traffic signal system serving Chapel Hill and Carrboro." Part of this project includes the replacement of old copper wire with fiber optic communication cable. This means hopefully sometime in 2011 we'll have a fiber network to deliver broadband Internet connections to people via wireless. Now we need to stop legislation built to prevent municipalities from building networks.

From the Town of Chapel Hill eNews: (subscribe here)

- Rehabilitation and Expansion of Traffic Signal System: The Council approved a plan for the rehabilitation and expansion of the traffic signal system serving Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The $5 million project with the NC Department of Transportation requires a local cost-share of $450,000.

This is just terrible. Carrboro's mural between Weaver and Main Street is gone. The work was originally created as a fund raiser for Club Nova in 2002 and found new life as a poem by Carrboro's first Poet Laureate in 2003. Now it's a blank slate.

On Tuesday, the mural on the side wall of the Jade Palace Chinese restaurant became a blanket of sea-foam green after three men said a man offered them money to paint over it.

"One part of it was something my nephew painted, and that meant so much to me," restaurant co-owner Jenny Chan said. "It breaks my heart. It's so sad to see it all destroyed so quickly."
- newsobserver.com | Carrboro mural painted over

Even sadder is how it was done:

Although a lot has been said about UNC's planned research campus, Carolina North, there have not been enough opportunities for citizens to hear and ask about issues and potential impacts, and to hear these addressed from a community perspective.

That's why the grassroots citizens group Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth (NRG), with the generous cooperation of several local organizations, is holding a public forum on Monday, June 4, at 7:00 p.m., in the Chapel Hill Town Council Chambers. This forum, entitled "Carolina North: A Community Perspective", will feature a panel of speakers who have long involvement with this topic. They will be giving short presentations on salient issues, and answering questions from a moderator and from the audience.

Why yet another meeting? Because most of the information that has been disseminated thus far has been coordinated by UNC. That's not a criticism - it's their job. And it's our job as citizens to ask tough questions and demand clear answers to the potential impacts of this, the largest development we will face in our lifetimes, on our community.